Creating/managing sites in Webflow for clients

Hi,

Last week I created two small company websites with Webflow. As a designer I am often asked if I can design and build a website. I can but but I don’t code. So I would usually reply with a design and a link to Wordpress or other CMS. Now I refer them to Webflow. They create an account and I use that account to create their website so they can maintain it when it’s ready.

Here’s my question. I am thinking of the Webflow 16 dollar/month plan so I can create websites with multiple pages. But how do my clients maintain their multiple page website that I create? The FREE Webflow plan is perfect. But it doesn’t allow more then two pages. I can’t ask them to pay 16dollar/month just for the occasional change they will make to their website.

Cheers!
Martin

www.appetitedesign.nl

We’ll be releasing a feature soon that will allow you to transfer sites to your clients after you are done with them. Stay tuned! We’ll announce that feature and more on the forums and over email. :sunny:

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yeah i been trying figure where webflow fits in… I need to make a site but $20 a month and another $8 a month to host it and get some input forms to work would be $28… that to expensive for me at the moment… Yeah you could pay in for a year and reduced cost of $16 but that would $192 bucks and still $24 a month…

So i guess is my question is webflow focus on web designers for quick mock ups and landing pages or the average user trying to get up their own site… There seems to be a price point missing for a Single site production along with webhosting…

I get it Webflow is new and being developed but is it targeted for the average user trying to put up a quick single website or its it for target web developers??

Hi @phi36nine and @MartinB. Thanks for reaching out. This kind of price point is definitely something we’re thinking about. Can you help me understand how often you create websites? Right now we’re targeting web designers / creatives that design+create many websites for clients/work. Do you guys need to create just one site or do you see yourself making sites in the future?

If you create only a few websites a year, would you be creating a new webflow account for each website (assuming these accounts are lower cost and include hosting)? Wouldn’t you want to manage these websites in one account?

I really like the transfer feature. Great stuff! But if I have a paid Webflow account and my customers don’t they are limited to a 2 page website. Wouldn’t it be smart to have them unlock the multi page website that I created under my paid account for a fixed amount?

Then Webflow has some turnover per transferred website. I can create multi page websites. And the end customer doesn’t need to pay a monthly fee.

Seems to me the unlocked website has some limitations as well, like you can alter text, images, but you can’t change sections/containers/columns etc. I that case the end client has to contact - in this case - me again. And because I have a paid account I can change the structure and transfer it again. And again Webflow receives money for unlocking the website.

Seems a good deal to me.
Martin

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My thoughts.

My JTBD (Jobs to be done) for my clients include the front end look / feel - UI and UX and webflow is great in that it helps me get it done without having to hire my coder to take my photoshop designs.

Where i see a fork in the road with webflow is as such.

I’ve created a client site, downloaded the exported code and given them the site.

NOW…if they come back, I have to hope I know enough code to tweak the site in a text code editor or try something like dreamweaver. If its a visual new tweak or add-on…I’m kinda screwed if I don’t have that client site sitting in my webflow dashboard. I think I only 20 sites available. If I have deleted that client project, there is no way to bring the site back into webflow ;( Not to sure if you guys are looking into this or not…

two potential add-on’s that would help me would be for

  1. A one time fee of lets say $6 to import a site back into webflow, but somehow you would have to also allow someone to download a packet that the HTML could not be messed with… maybe a mySite.wbf extension
    -or- a $6 fee for a cloud based housing of this file (use amazon cloud storage) that I could keep it on and then as long as I was under 20 sites, I could re-import it back into webflow.

Any other options the webflow team has for something along the lines of this use case?

I know the solution you would like us to take is to bump up to the next level, and I’m sure for some of us we see the value in webflow and can work the monthly increase into the pricing we bill out to our clients… Great tool u webflow!..keep it up :wink:

Thanks for asking!

I joined with the 50 site plan trusting that as I saw how responsive you are in all other areas that you would address this too and look, I’ve been in a little over an month and you are. You seem to be riding the wave ahead of the curve - thanks again.

Thanks for your suggestions @clickryan! These are some ideas that we’ve been exploring for some time. We’re doing a lot of pricing changes in the next coming months and we’ll be considering something like this.

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No news on this? im in desperate need of this feature!!!

I’m curious if this issue was every picked up again and addressed?

I recently found and joined Webflow. I have to say I’m impressed and really loving what I see. I have more or less no coding experience; I can see myself definitely picking this up as a hobby, just for fun: creating a personal website, etc. After I develop my skills - and assuming this site is still operational - I can definitely see myself becoming an amateur-freelance designer, something done occasionally, say with maybe a local business or two.

Thoughts on the original comments in the post? Cheers.

Hi Aperion, glad to hear you are interested in learning to design web pages. Once webflow integrates a CMS this will be a one-stop place for designers to build sites for themselves AND clients. Let’s fact it, clients want to be able to login and make changes, have a blog, sale some things / take payments, etc.

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Is it possible that you guys can just create a separate login or account for clients that can be linked to a designer? that way they can view the site and all not as a designer but as a commenter with some of the features used in testing websites that can help designers what needs to be worked on. If the client love it they can choice to ether take it which can lead them to porting it over to a host or host it their. You can set price for porting alone and they want to host it on webflow you can give them regular set price for other accounts or even a special deal just for clients that can also help out designers as well.

I am not a professional web designer and all. I am just a newbie who happened to know some things and did some work and all. But I think it would help those who only do a few sites out of a year that you offer them a prepaid plan so they can put up as needed. I agree that it maybe easier to have a designer or so account having control over clients sites, but that is why I think anew account option could help where clients can could go for client account.

Let me briefly go over my little proposal. Instead of creating a new account which most likely will be the free one with limited features. Webflow should create a client account (however you name it), where they can sign up as clients with the ability to view and do what client does under the designer plan. For my experience, they don’t need full blown access to everything like designing tools and such, what you could give them is access over content, make annotations and comments, change pictures & if they like it, they should have the ability to port over their hosting server or use webflow. But the Client account under a designer account should have some of the features like multi- pages. I agree with @MartinB you can give the client accounts fix prices for stuff like that and more.

How I hope they implement it is by giving designers the option to create editors with lessor roles, where they set what can and can’t be edited. Also, hide the account / billing info.

They certainly are taking a long time to implement something like this, and I know they are busy, but I have several clients now and heavily considering canceling my account here and moving to a self hosted WordPress setup (and I don’t even like WordPress).

I would really love to know what Webflow thinks about JonthueM’s suggestion. Any news update?

Perhaps use a Public Link. or a Published site.

Client can see both without being able change it.

What ever they need changed… could be communicated via phone or email.

Thats a great idea. Maybe creating a sub domain of a published site and exporting the html/css into that sub domain site for their preview.

Leave the site in your account’s dashboard and give add your client as a Content Editor: http://help.webflow.com/lesson/adding-content-editors-to-your-site

As for the billing, we are working on a way for you to pass on the hosting fees straight onto your clients. No firm ETA on this yet.

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I am also (along with many other freelancers, I’m sure) waiting to hop on the Webflow platform until we can easily pass along CMS hosting billing and access to various clients. This would be HUGE and the killer feature I would want to use Webflow for client work.

It would be awesome to have an ETA on this feature, and I +1 for having it bumped up!

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if you want to help us test this feature, sign up here:
http://forum.webflow.com/t/host-client-sites-with-webflow-looking-for-beta-testers/23888